Samuel Ruiz García

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Samuel Ruiz García, Mexican Roman Catholic bishop and activist
(born Nov. 3, 1924, Irapuato, Guanajuato state, Mex.—died Jan. 24, 2011, Mexico City, Mex.), championed the indigenousMaya in the Mexican state of Chiapas while serving (1960–99) as bishop in San Cristóbal de las Casas and was instrumental in helping to mediate the 1990s Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) rebellion that pressed for land reform and redistribution for Mexico’sdisenfranchised Indians. In 1949 Ruiz was ordained a priest in Rome. He studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University there before being posted to Chiapas. While bishop, Ruiz, a liberation theologian, learned three of the Indians’ ancient languages and organized a network of catechists who traveled to facilitate worship in remote jungle regions. Though Ruiz insisted that he had not advocated the EZLN violence that resulted in 145 deaths over 12 days in January 1994 when the EZLN occupied several towns in Chiapas, his support for EZLN principles of fighting injustice angered the government, which accused him of preaching a “theology of violence.” (In 1997 he survived an attempt on his life by pro-government assassins.) In 1993 the Vatican, which feared that Ruiz had strayed from his mission of persuading the Maya to shed their ancient ways and adopt Roman Catholicism, asked for his resignation. Ruiz received the support of numerous Mexican clerics, however, and he remained bishop until mandatory retirement at age 75 forced him to step down. Ruiz was the recipient in 2000 of UNESCO’s International Simón Bolivar Prize for “contributing to the freedom, independence, and dignity of peoples and to the strengthening of a new international economic, social, and cultural order.”